Awesome find: The $50 Siel DK600!

opg

So, after months and months of battling eBay bidders who are actually dealers with money to buy any synth in any condition, only to repair it and re-sell it on eBay for triple the price, I finally got to visit my favorite used music store and purchase a Siel DK600 for $50!

Take THAT, eBay devils!!! Twisted Evil

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There was no fuse in it when I left, so I popped in a fuse I had purchased for a Commodore 64 several weeks ago. Everything appears to be working fine, but there is no sound.

The soldering on the output jack, the volume pot, and virtually every other pot looks good. There appears to be no real work done on this before. The wiring looks good and is bundled together neatly. It is missing the left side panel, but I have plans to whip up some nifty wooden ones to add another 100 pounds to this beast.

Before I go out and buy a new multimeter, is there anything I can check first that I may have missed?

Also, I'm new to fuses, besides the C64. The synth calls for a "T.360mA" fuse. The extra one I had for the C64 is a 1.5A 250V glass fuse. I'm guessing this is okay?

If anyone is interested in a nonworking Roland JX3P synth, the owner also offered to sell it for $50. I would have, but I'm guessing the problem is a bit too advanced for me. Besides, wouldn't anyone who owns a JX3P also want the somewhat-hard-to-find PG200 knobby accessory?

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Danno Gee Ray · Joined: Sep 25, 2005 Posts: 1351 Location: Telford, PA USA

Is that both units for the $50.00?

I might be interested. Please let me know the details.

Dan G.

opg · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:32 am Post subject:

Just so I don't get anyone too excited, it was just the synth, not the both the synth and the controller. Sorry about that. And the synth is located in Richmond, VA.

I guess I should have bought it as well. I took another long, hard look in the Siel DK600 last night. First, after finding a site that actually showed me a picture of this mysterious blue battery that often leaks and ruins the synth, I hunted around for it. "Where the hell is it?" I asked, looking around the PCBs right under the hood and just below. Then I saw it: a detached ribbon cable poking out underneath the keyboard. After unscrewing the keyboard from the case, I popped the cable back in and glorious sounds echoed throughout the upstairs like the Jesus....moohahaha cheers

This is a good sign that the Roland JX-3P should have been purchased as well....I'll see what I can do.

bigtex

opg

bigtex · Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:18 am Post subject:

If it works for a while and then stops working, then you've got one of the kind of electronics problems that have delayed symptoms such as an intermittent connection or short that gets worse with heat, a slowly charging or discharging capacitor (intermittent connection or short through resistance to a capacitor) or something like that.

Often, the best way to diagnose these problems is to speed up the onset of the problem. Try turning the machine on, from cold, and using a blowdryer (hot hair dryer, heat gun, etc) to heat up parts of the circuit and see if it fails faster. Also try poking components with something non-conductive like a wooden stick and see if stuff starts failing or working.

These kind of intermittent or slow-onset problems are realy a pain to diagnose and repair. Good luck!

opg · Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:50 am Post subject:

I've been searching DigiKey to see what things they have that I can replace. For example, I need to replace a 16-pin DIP ribbon cable which should be no problem. I also read about cleaning the pins and contacts of ICs can be good.

The good news is that nothing appears to be getting worse. I just can't edit the first preset loaded with the push buttons, only the pots. And the number pad (the same type of push buttons) don't work. This includes the almighty "Free" push button, which is key if I want to start from scratch. That's all I really want. I don't need MIDI, presets, or saving. I've thought about what I could disconnect to bypass this part, but I'm sure it's not set up that way. If I disconnect the keypad/free/record board, I can't use the keyboard. And I haven't done enough research yet to see what chips I could/shouldn't pop out.

The other two fuses are starting to bug me, though. There are two 1.6A glass fuses by the power supply, and they are the same as a typical glass fuse but shorter than 1 1/4". My first guess is Italian- metric? There are metric fast-blow fuses on Digikey, but nothing with that length or any reference to the red and blue stripes. This may not be a problem for now, but if I'm going to start ordering stuff, I might as well get some more of those.